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You don’t have to have a Taurus sun sign to be Taurean. ‘Pure Taurus types’ have pink, firm, elastic skin, bulging solid percussion under pinkie finger, stiff thumb and fingers, full rosy ball of thumb surrounded by long clear deep life line, clear deep lines and skin ridge patterns, very few peripheral lines, long graceful heart line ending under index finger, horizontal head line closely tied to the life line at their beginnings, predominantly loop and arch fingerprints, square finger tips, well developed lower knots on fingers with dominant middle and bottom phalanges. The hand above belongs to a unique Pisces.

Taurus is driven by their physical senses. These responsible, practical, pragmatic, objective, dependable, and reliable individuals understand how the material world works. They tend to get bogged down with practical and mundane matters that limit their abstract abilities and imagination. They trust what they can see and feel, not ideas, intuitions, or inspirations. As creatures of habit, they can get addicted to routine and order. They’re great at maintaining the status quo, but procrastinate at beginnings and endings. They must learn to pay attention to their habits and patterns from the get go.

Taurus is a feminine archetype. Aphrodite’s need for comfort and beauty can transform her visions of wealth and power into physical reality. Venus loves family, friendships, home, food, nature, art and music. Her strong need for physical security drives her practical attitudes. Honest, dependable, and trustworthy, she’s highly valued for her natural warmth and good sense. She won’t bend the truth or perform a song and dance act for anyone. She’s loyal, affectionate, and charming, but can also be controlling, jealous, and possessive. She thrives in real estate, banking, food, and fashion businesses. She’s not the best salesman because she takes rejection personally. Her greatest challenges are to trust her gut, give up control, and to let go when it makes no sense to hang on.

Many of the best bulls and worst minotaurs were born under the sign of Taurus.

Pope John Paul ll was a radiant spirit who embodied the finest qualities of Taurus. He asked the rich to share their wealth with the poor. The first Pope to visit a synagogue, he encouraged Catholics and Jews to love one another. He survived an assassination attempt that nearly killed him and graciously rose to do battle with countless chaotic messes and reforms in the church.

Krishnamurti was a spiritual guide who shared good sense with whoever would listen.

Leonardo da Vinci was the original hipster ~ a great artist and inventor.

Sigmund Freud was father of modern psychoanalysis.

Karl Marx developed the theory of socialism.

Martha Graham was mother of modern dance.

Katherine Hepburn was Grande Dame of American stage and movies.

Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister Tony Blair are anchors for Great Britain.

From the darkest depths of Tartarus arose a Minotaur from 1933 to 1945.

“The great mass of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than a small one”

Responsible for over thirty million deaths, Adolph Hitler transformed our world by harnessing anger, fear, and terror and combining it with the power of symbolism to control and manipulate the masses.

Jim Jones, a fanatic cult figure, led 1,000 people to mass suicide in 1978.

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh showed no remorse for his evil.

Saddam Hussein (Iraqi President 79~06) was slain and shamed by our military.

William Randolph Hearst and Orson Welles (both bulls) battled stubbornly over the making and release of the movie, ‘Citizen Kane’. Kane was a Midas who Welles immodestly modeled after Hearst. Despite his natural charisma and brilliant acting and directing, Welles was no match for Hearst’s financial fortune and ability to influence the masses. Welles was determined and persistent in his righteous defiance of Hearst. Stubborn, acquisitive, possessive, and controlling, Hearst relentlessly tortured Welles with legalities and bludgeoned him with bad publicity until Welles could no longer afford his principles, rise to his challenges, or control his self-indulgences (a peril for Taurus).

‘Values’ are the esoteric correspondence for Taurus. Everything and nothing are of equal value; identical in nature, but different by degree. A billionaire dying of cancer will gladly trade his money for youth and good health. A glamorous celebrity with a brain damaged child will gratefully and graciously scrub toilets in Grand Central Station. People ask, “How long is my life?” Life is about quality, not quantity. Everyone dies.

‘Less is more’ learned King Midas as he yearned for the touch of gold, got it, and then turned his beloved daughter and their magical relationship into a hunk of metal. Food transformed to gold as it touched his lips. Midas is a lesson of values. How can we be stable, secure, and happy and let go of needless wants at the same time? Too little or too much of anything raises our awareness of what matters. Aphrodite (Greek) rules Taurus. Venus (Roman) loves and values her stability, security, sensuality, and splendor.

Alchemy is the science of turning lead into gold. It’s the art of turning Saturn into the Sun. We can combine courage with virtue, honesty with integrity, dignity with nobility, responsibility with discipline, structure with focus, and determination with persistence. We can cultivate healthy attitudes, think constructively, set realistic goals, and positively transform our inner and outer worlds. Embrace the best qualities of Aphrodite. Master darkness and manage your family; Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Ares, Zeus, Cronos, Vulcan, Poseidon, and Hades. We can all be our own best friends and bull shit detectors.

Common sense is not necessarily good sense. People apply formulas for success, yet few are truly successful. Unhealthy values point to unwholesome societies that point to unnatural paths of self-destruction. The human race has become a race against bad shit happening. Our major problems are not physical. They are symptoms of ideological, philosophical, and spiritual dysfunction. Success is a state of mind, heart, and spirit. Our health and the health of our world is a reflection of our thoughts and feelings. Must we be habitually and eternally challenged to learn to value what we have by losing it?

The New York Stock Exchange and Federal Reserve are bulls. Uranus transited Taurus from 1935 to 1942. The USA went off the gold standard. People began focusing on their values and questioning materialism. President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act. Labor organized, forming unions that went on strike and engaged in sit-downs across the nation. President Roosevelt defended the Four Essential Freedoms: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.

People born between 1935 and 1942 have Uranus in Taurus. Many have experienced sudden and unexpected gains and reversals. After 84 years, in 2019, Uranus returns to Taurus for seven years. Polluted partisan politics progressively prevent and pervert our progress, including social and national security. Expect extreme financial fluctuations.

You don’t have to be a Scorpio to be Scorpionic. Feeling types have long rectangular palms and long fingers. The main difference between Scorpio, Cancer, and Pisces hands is that Scorpios tend to have much stiffer joints, especially the thumb. The consistency of fixed hands is generally denser and the skin is less elastic than cardinal and mutable types. Head and life lines are frequently tied together at their beginnings. Nails are often long and broad with rounded or conical fingertips and well developed knots on the second joints. I’ve seen less vertical lines in the Scorpio ball of thumb. Scorpio has a harder time trusting others as they have so many dark secrets to keep.

Steve Stollman is a close friend and a Scorpio with Aquarian hands. This is an instance where palmistry and astrology need each other. Some signs are more mysterious than others and Scorpio leads the pack in my mind. It’s easy to see the Aquarian in Steve, but some of his behavior is unexplainable from his hands alone. For instance, you might look at those strong meaty thinking hands and long independent pinkies and think, ‘this guy is good at making $. He does seem to attract it, but for some mysterious reason, he’s very bad at managing it. Steve personifies some of the most positive and negative transpersonal powers of both Scorpio and Aquarius. He satirically cites James Cabel, “An optimist believes this is the best of all worlds and the pessimist is afraid they’re right”. Another favorite saying of his is “The second biggest problem in the world is feigned competence. The biggest is feigned incompetence”.

I met Steve shortly after moving to NYC about 40+ years ago. He was advocating for better working conditions for blind news dealers, laboring inhumanely for peanuts in hot polluted little green wooden boxes on busy street corners. Steve was determined to improve their lots in life and created a woodworking machine shop which specialized in building custom newsstands and street furniture. Steve graciously offered to hire me on my own part time schedule. You would think his large hands and long fingers would embrace organization, but instead, he abhorred detail and loved simplicity. He saw complexity as an obstacle to progress. He’d emerge from his bathroom early each morning with an empty coffee cup in one hand and a dimensionless sketch on toilet paper in the other. “Here, make this”. He’d hand it to me. “What is it?” “It’s a box. We make boxes. We eat, sleep, and shit between ninety degree angles. Just cut the wood and put it together”. I’d sardonically reply, “It might help to know the materials, dimensions, preferred joinery, and hardware.”

Steve’s a paradox. He’s a creative thinker with a heart of gold and simultaneously a one-man obstacle course. I’d clear space to work and within a few minutes there’d be a new obstacle in my way. I couldn’t understand why he always seemed to get in his own way. I used to call Steve a “Would Worker” due to his casual attitude about schedules, structure, discipline, details, and deadlines. Steve called me ‘MEGLOMEGLIAC” due to my incorrigible ego. Steve championed the downtrodden. I was in NYC to become rich and famous. Steve had a sympathetic ear for every indigent person who crawled in from Houston Street. I disparagingly nicknamed his shop the “Houston Street Lonely Hearts Club”. It took me years to realize the very important and valuable social work that Steve was doing. Tirelessly and selflessly, he worked, like Bernie Sanders, a curmudgeon for humanity who’d always show up to testify for the downtrodden at public hearings.

I believe Steve’s true genius is as an artist, a composer, musician, and singer of social ballads. Once you learn to enjoy his raspy ‘Tom Waits’ sounding voice and pay attention to his lyrics, his art is profound. I emailed Steve and asked for some links to his ballads. This is his response ~

www.SteveStollman.com has 10 of my songs and links to writing. www.LightWheels.com has the models of Human-Powered Vehicles. Thanks for the plug. It will be interesting to see if anybody responds. Invite responses please.

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.

Bill Gates’s Sun, Venus, and Saturn are in Scorpio. His rectangular palms and short fingers reveal an intuitive type. Bill must be passionate and inspired in order to tackle his goals. He’s an aging Luke Skywalker, still learning the awesome responsibility of having and using the force.

Little Red Riding Hood is a Scorpio / Persephone fairy tale. When Bill was Little Red Riding Hood, he was seduced by the Big Bad Wolf while on his way to Granny’s House. They teamed up to deliver costly bundles of goodies everywhere. The Wolf promotes Red, but Red’s actually a very private person. Red would much rather disappear into the electronic ether if he could. Bill’s philanthropy sheds an affirmative light on the Wolf. He needs to give more, wherever, and whenever he can. Plenty of poor people give more time, energy, and money than Bill compared to their income. When I volunteered for the AIDS community in NYC, I was shocked by how many deserving individuals slip through the cracks in the system. Good intentions are not enough.

Scorpios are the best kept secret keepers. The famed former CEO of General Electric is a Grand Master. No memoir will ever reveal his dark secrets. With Sun, Mercury, and Midheaven in Scorpio, Jack Welch is Darth Vader. During his reign, GE benefited the world while their highly toxic dark side was destroying it. I believe Jack turned his back on Mother Nature while GE profitably pumped PCB’s into the Hudson River. Many clandestine behaviors lie hidden beneath the tips of the largest icebergs.

Scorpios must learn to love without lust and seduction and let go of their need to control and possess the objects of their desire. They must maintain a strong sense of purpose, even when they’re warring within themselves. When they love and respect you, they’re fiercely loyal, although their greatest loyalty is always to themselves. Scorpios are creative and imaginative. They envision what they want and know they’ll eventually get it. A near death experience may awaken them to their higher selves. They’re excellent researchers, great problem solvers, sleuthful spies, perceptive psychologists, skillful surgeons, top therapists, and the best and worst mystery, crime, and horror writers.

Scorpio is Hades, Greek God of the Underworld. He’s Pluto, Roman God of Death, Sex, and Transformation. He’s a Devil in Christian myth. He’s Death in Tarot. Darth Vader, Voldemort, the Mummy, and the Big Bad Wolf are the dark side of Scorpio rolled into one. He’s a Rapist, Terrorist, and the Priest who sexually abuses little children. Executioners, coroners, undertakers, and morticians are all ruled by Pluto.

Pluto is lord and master of the sexual orgasm (little death). From first breath to final exit, Pluto patiently awaits you with his kiss of death. Hungry crocodiles, slithery snakes, and poisonous spiders stealthily lurk beneath his sultry surface. The path of too many dark secrets leads to the palace of socio-pathology. Pluto doesn’t get mad, he gets even. Temptation, seduction, and betrayal are his modus operandi. Whether with pleasure or pain, you’ll eventually stenchily emerge from his bowels.

We hide our most secret lusts for sex, money, and property. Our deepest darkest fears and desires can drive us toward physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual perversions. Everything is ok as long as our secrets stay secret and we hide the truth from ourselves. Many of us rationalize our bizarre behaviors because we can get away with them. The evil Priest feigns love and compassion while he physically and spiritually rapes the innocent souls he has been entrusted to protect. Their Guilt, Shame, Remorse, and Fear closely guard his Evil secrets.

Persephone is the feminine side of Pluto. She’s tall, dark, stunning, seductive, and impossible to resist. Helen of Troy was the type, symbolizing the magnetic and hypnotic powers of feeling. Helen was so charismatic that men fell hopelessly in love with her. The Trojan War was fought because of that power. Plutonian types have mesmeric personalities and healing powers. It’s hard not to feel special when you’re around these folks. They bring out the best and worst in us. They frequently wear black or dark colors.

Insurance is Scorpionic. You’ve heard the saying, “The only guarantees in life are Death and Taxes”. Life is not ensured or assured like Death and Taxes, but you can purchase insurance, which is a contractual arrangement whereby one party pays another party to guarantee them against a specified loss. Insurance implies that we have something of value. Perhaps we can’t afford not to value something. Assuming our premiums are paid, we worry less about the costs of bad shit happening to family, health, home, car, property, or whatever we value that’s insurable. Insurance is a form of gambling. Your agent is your bookie. Your insurer is the casino. The house is always favored financially due to statistical permutations, combinations, and probabilities. High risk means high stakes. You can check your odds by examining insurance actuarial tables and know your prospects by observing your premiums. The insured shoots craps and always loses, even when he wins. My good friend Lloyd tells me he’s depending on Lotto for his retirement. He assures me it gives him hope, “You’ve got to play to lose”, he quips.

Insuring may be confused with ensuring or assuring. Spraying crops with pesticides ensures fewer bugs and weeds. It assures we eat drink and breathe toxic chemicals. Investing Social Security in the Stock Market does not insure that the market won’t collapse. Employees of Enron believed their pensions insured a secure retirement. Drilling for oil in the wilderness does not insure that we will have enough oil. It does ensure and assure that we’ll have social, political, and environmental problems. Conserving energy ensures that we will have more energy and waste fewer natural resources. Offering vengeance as a solution to violence assures more violence.

Everyone dies. Life insurance protects the living. What are your last years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds worth? What’s the premium for a graceful painless final exit? What’s it cost to pull the plug? I want to live a long and healthy life and enjoy a quick and graceful final exit. Having an abundance of Scorpio symbolism in my horoscope, I’ve created my very own “Dr. Death Do it Yourself Kit”. It’s a breathing apparatus attached to a tank of helium. When necessary, I’ll have a logical, practical, painless, and peaceful alternative to facing a future of pain, dependency, lack of awareness, no love, or abject poverty in old (hopefully) age. Read Final Exit by Derek Humphrey if you want to learn more about Dying with Dignity.

Pluto takes twenty years to change astrological sign during which time it disintegrates, destroys, and transforms collective consciousness. Pluto almost doubled its speed when it transited its own astrological home of Scorpio from 1984 to 1995.

Historically, as Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto transited the sign of Scorpio, our views of Sex, Violence, and Death transformed forever. It was a challenging time to keep secrets. Sex combined with death to expose the dark underbelly of Scorpio. HIV came into being while condoms were promoted on national TV to stop the spread of AIDS. Homosexuality came out of the closet to be the topic of everyday conversation. Religious fundamentalists and politicians had plenty to preach about. Sex scandals ousted Senator Gary Hart and televangelist Jim Bakker. Scorpio rules other people’s money and Bakker was later convicted of defrauding his followers of 158 million dollars.

Nobody wanted our famous Garbage barge which carried 3,100 tons of Garbage 6,000 miles before returning home to be burned.

“Dr. Death” (Jack Kevorkian) became a household name.

When Neptune (Pisces) transited the sign of Scorpio from 1957 to 1970, it offered an opportunity for spiritual transformation. Neptune regenerates or degenerates. It began with sit-ins and peaceful demonstrations and ended with race riots, terrorist bombings, and hijackings. Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by `two of her own bodyguards’. Racial tensions rose. Bernard Goetz shot four young black men in the NYC subway system. He claimed they were robbing him. They claimed not to have provoked him. Political unrest catalyzed the assassinations of John Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. It was an era of escapism. Drugs, pornography, and indiscriminate sex became normal. Oral sex and contraceptives became popular. Thousands of men went into exile rather than serve in the Vietnam War.

When Uranus (Aquarius) transited Scorpio from 1975 to 1981, it marked the end of the Vietnam War for America and the beginning of new terror in Cambodia. A senate committee admitted that assassination was modus operandi in U.S. foreign policy.

Mass humor was irreverent as seen by the popularity of Saturday Night Live on TV.

Scorpio rules the reproductive system. In 1976, scientists at MIT created the first synthetic gene. The first test tube baby was conceived outside of the womb in 1978.

Scorpio symbolizes powerful women. The Episcopal Church ordained the first woman. Barbara Walters was the first woman national news anchor on ABC TV.

The first Death (Pluto) sentence was carried out in ten years when convicted murderer Gary Gilmore went before a firing squad.

Punk Rock was loud and nihilistic, an unconventional rebellious expression of Uranus.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show became a cult classic.

Ultrasound became an alternative to x-ray radiation.

Performance art became a new art form.

Palimony suits became popular.

Over 1,000 “No Nukes” protesters were arrested on Wall Street on the 50th anniversary of the 1929 stock market crash.

1980 saw the first professional actor in the Whitehouse following the lowest voter turnout in modern history.

Fidel Castro’s “Freedom Flotilla” embarrassed the U.S. when we discovered that Castro had unloaded his underworld criminals, mentally ill, and misfits on us.

Libra, the 7th sign of the zodiac rules the 7th house of marriage in western astrology. The autumn equinox is a time for partnership, sharing, and giving. Libras strive for balance, idolize harmony, dislike discord, and hate confrontation. They’re the best negotiators. Libras can be very decisive when it really matters, but they’re infamous when it comes to deciding where to go, what to eat, or what to wear. Libras love being frank and direct, but must realize that they may not be liked for it. They can be aggressive, indirect, and vague at the same time, and still manage to get their way. Some Libras tread a thin line between ethics and honesty. Maybe they know something that could change everything, but fail to mention it. Libras wield logic, tact, and diplomacy like a Samurai Swordsman. Athena’s mighty sword is applied with icy emotional detachment.

You don’t have to be born under the sign of Libra to have a Libra personality. Thinking types have square palms and long fingers. Dominant Libra types have long clear gently curving unobstructed headlines that fork near the percussion of the hand. A cultivated Libra sees every side of a situation. With straight and strong long pinkie fingers, they communicate clearly and directly. Dominant bottom and middle phalanges are favorable for commerce, banking, and real estate. A long top phalanx is best for public speaking, journalism, or law. Strong index fingers make ambitious hardworking managers and powerful leaders. A separation between head and life lines increases personal initiative and spontaneity. The wider the space, the more the person doesn’t care what others think. They do what they must do no matter what. Some Libras are blinded by their need to get their way. Trying to change a Libra’s mind is like playing a game of mental monopoly. The best strategy is to be direct and make good sense.

Healthy Libras have strong handshakes and firm pink elastic skin. Long graceful heart lines extend from under the pinkie to the base of the index finger, embodying romance and sentimentality. Sometimes a branch at the end of the heart line reaches down to touch the head line. These Libras can analyze, rationalize, and compartmentalize their feelings. It’s part of their duality to be hard and soft at the same time. Long vertical lines on the ball of the thumb within the life line are soul commitments to family and friends. The happiest Libras will have several clear lines parallel to their life lines.

Libras are idealistic, romantic, and refined. Aesthetics are important to them. You’ll see Libra professionals in chic designer clothing taking clients out to trendy restaurants. Political, legal, publishing, public speaking, public relations, marketing, higher education, and entertainment fields are burgeoning with Librans.

Athena is my favorite Libra archetype. Greek Goddess of Wisdom and Justice, Athena rules the strategic thinking required in combat. Odysseus (Libra) and Achilles (Aries) worshiped her. Often pictured as a handsome Goddess in battle armor, Athena holds a shield (Intuition) in one hand and a sword or spear (Thinking) in the other. She discards emotion to think with crystal clarity and cut to the quick. Athena is often pictured with the scales of justice and an owl on her shoulder to symbolize wisdom.

An Athena type came to me for a reading many years ago. I’ll call him Athen. Athen arrived on my doorstep dressed in an expensive designer suit and power tie. I greeted him in my t-shirt and jeans. As a master business plan writer, Athen seemed out of place consulting a palmist in an east village tenement apartment. A friend of his had attended one of my palmistry lectures and gave me a radiant referral.

Athen’s modus operandi was to find floundering companies and create compelling new products or services to point them in the direction of prosperity. In exchange for writing a first class business plan, Athen would receive a nominal fee and substantial stock options. An emperor of illusion, Athen would weave a sophisticated cloak of investment opportunity. Like a tailor, he threaded his needle with enough preferred non-voting stock to begin weaving his wardrobe. As plans took form, the company’s stock would appear more valuable. For a substantial retainer, Athen would help execute his concepts and guide management through the churning rapids of dramatic changes taking place within the company structure. Once the company was able to survive without Athen, he sold off large chunks of his stock and quickly moved on to the next project. Athen attempted to resuscitate several companies that failed without his help. He always prospered.

Athen explained that he was embroiled in a mid-eight-figure fiasco concerning securities fraud. The IRS was a monkey on his back. He needed strategies for the best ways to proceed. Although we resided in totally different worlds, Athen and I immediately hit it off. Thinkingtypes can bounce ideas off each other for hours. We were archetypal from the get go. Athen was Pinocchio. I was Jiminy Cricket. Like Pinocchio, Athen was smart, but surprisingly naïve. Jiminy appeared because Pinocchio lacked a conscience.

It’s possible in business to be legal and unethical or immoral at the same time. If Athen were to put his ever growing nose in the wrong place at the wrong time, it might get chopped off. That’s what was happening. Athen offered me a generous retainer to be his “Jiminy Cricket”. I declined, but accepted occasional payments and gifts in exchange for my time, advice, and friendship. I used astrology to examine Athen’s timing and behavioral patterns. Tarot cards helped us gain better insight into his relationships.

Athen is a thinking type with square palms and long fingers. His long unobstructed straight headlines and long straight and strong pinkie fingers with long bottom phalanges are great for commerce. Athen was inherently an honest and caring person. He was ambitious (strong index finger), hardworking, and blinded by his desire and need for freedom, power, and wealth. You can see from the separation between his head and life lines that Athen doesn’t lack initiative. He couldn’t care less what others think of him.

I decided the best way to communicate with Athen was to be direct and make good sense. His long graceful heart line extends to his index finger, representing a romantic and sentimental nature. You can see from the vertical lines within the ball of his thumb that Athen is deeply committed to his family and friends. I first tried appealing to his compassionate nature.

Why not design and promote healthy sensible products (like Paul Newman) and give as much profit as possible to charitable causes? Athen claimed he loved that idea, but rationalized that he needed to be personally more financially substantial before giving money away. I disagreed.

“Does the world really need another greasy french fry, addictive brew, or violent video game? Why can’t the same resources and labor be used to make healthier products and services? Why not make products more expensive and exploit less people along the way?” “More expensive means more grease”, according to Athen. A higher selling price means more time and money spent romanticizing and glamorizing a product or service. Selling less and making more money is a great idea, but doesn’t come cheap.

“It’s the grease”, Athen would say. Why do consumers pay so much more for caffeine at $tarbuck$? What makes a person buy an expensive designer brand name when they can get the exact same generic item for less? Revolutionary new products or services are sometimes created and protected. Some become generic and incredibly profitable. Most products and services are just variations on existing themes. Athen offered viable alternative business strategies that seemed likely to happen well if well implemented.

It was easy to see who’d actually benefit and who wouldn’t. The cream always rises to the top. The problem is that every scheme where someone is making heaps of money means others are being deceived, exploited, or used. The poorest people are always scraping for pennies at the bottom of the barrel. Laws that protect masses of ordinary people are created long after the reason for them has been abused. It’s no secret that Philip Morris always knew cigarette smoking was unhealthy. By manipulating the legal system, they shirked their responsibilities and justified their actions.

Truman Capote, a Libra, innately understood how easy it is to manipulate truth and the legal system. “Even an attorney of moderate talent can postpone doomsday year after year, for the system of appeals that pervades American jurisprudence amounts to a legalistic wheel of fortune, a game of chance, somewhat fixed in favor of the criminal, that the participants play interminably.”

Jiminy Cricket guided Pinocchio who eventually found truth and became a “real boy”. Athen and I weren’t so lucky. Athen ended up losing everything. In Libran style, he started over with fresh ideas, enthusiasm, and a dollop of grease. He’s still wheeling and dealing. Pinocchio and Jiminy keep in touch, but no longer collaborate.

Scott is a Cardinal Thinking type. His Sun, Moon, Mars, and Jupiter are in the sign of Libra. That’s a lot of Libra. Scott has Scorpio rising and three planets in Scorpio. That’s a lot of fixity in the feeling department. Scott is head ruled, but soft hearted. Much of his emotional growth can be attributed to his partner Lisa, who is a Cardinal Feeling type. Her Sun, Venus, and Uranus are in Cancer. She’s heart ruled, but also a strategic thinker. She has to be in order to partner well with Scott. Scott and Lisa balance each other beautifully. Scott’s strong and firm hardworking hands have designed and built sustainable housing, planted and tended bountiful gardens, and nourished community. He’s also a Tai Chi master, baker, musician, song writer, and good friend. Lisa has strong hardworking multi-talented hands that create many wonderful multi-media works of art and produce many healthy expressive venues for children. www.pompanuck.org.

Susan was born on the same day and year as Scott. She has the same planets at the same degrees in different astrological houses. You’d think their hands would be very similar, but they’re very different. Observe the separation between Susan’s head and life line. She has long index fingers that are ambitious, but in a very different way than Scott. Notice how the fingers on her right (dominant) hand lean towards the index finger. A motivated natural giver, she has traversed much of the Third World In the Peace Corp with her partner Orin, helping less fortunate people live better lives. Her language and communication skills are refined. Susan sings in a chorale; her wonderful voice is a finely tuned instrument. She’s a great gardener, cellist, documentary photographer (my website photos), and good friend.

My Cousin Richie, Libra extraordinaire, philosopher, sculptor, and inventor; created Tangle, The Infinite Sculpture (designer series of interactive, interlocking, plastic elbows). Our mothers were sisters. We share the ancestral “happiness”, and “seeker” genes. I once said to Richie, “If you put the same religious fervor into saving the world as you have into plastic elbows, we’d be saved”. He replied, “I am saving the world, one Tangle at a time” He meant it.

Richie has sold tens of millions of Tangles worldwide. I ran into a mutual friend on the streets of NYC who said he visited a monastery in Tibet and saw a picture of the Dalai Lama with a chrome Tangle in his lap. I wasn’t surprised. When I visited Richie at his gift show booth in NYC, he was talking with a very conservative buyer from Wal-Mart. I leaned closer to overhear what he was saying, “Let me show you the only product in this show worth more than money”. He meant it.

The hardest task in reading hands is learning to judge hands. One person’s long, rectangular, and firm might be another’s short, square, and soft. Rigorous practice is necessary to learn to observe and judge hands. Few of us are pure types. You may look at Cousin Richie’s fingers and see them as a bit short for a thinking type. I admit that if I didn’t know Richie, I may have seen his fingers differently, but the opposition between Libra and Aries is powerful. Dominant Libra opposes Aries as autumn opposes spring. Odysseus’s strategy fanned the flames of Jason’s passion on his quest for the Golden Fleece. Knowing Richie’s astrology and behavior has influenced how I see his hands.

My brother Gary has a Pisces sun. He’s a mutable feeling type. With Libra hands, he behaves more like a cardinal thinking type. Gary is a geriatric psychiatrist. I used to threaten to become one of his craziest patients, but then as a Gemini, I decided not to get old. Gary’s Libra temperament graciously and gracefully deals with the most stressful situations. Pisces gives Gary an ability to have the natural empathy and intuition that many Libras lack. Gary is a wonderful psychiatrist, husband, father, brother, son, and friend.

You don’t have to be an expert palmist to see certain truths in hands. When the end of a heart line dips down to touch the beginning of a headline, it’s unlikely the person will verbalize their deeper feelings, especially their negative emotions. Their rational mind controls a very impressionable heart. Add a short index finger and that wreaks havoc on a person’s self-esteem. It makes trying to offer advice to anyone with that combination a challenge for anyone who wants to help. From their personal history, you may learn that one or their parents was emotionally or physically absent during the person’s formative years.

One highly principled Libra was Mohandas Gandhi, spiritual leader, lawyer, and civil rights champion in early twentieth century India. He promoted non-violent disobedience and began India’s freedom movement. Gandhi must have had huge empathy and unshakable conviction to overcome the inertia of his short index fingers. Dennis Kucinich, a Libra, and a long shot in the 2004 presidential campaign, promised to make non-violence a priority by establishing a “Department of Peace”. Russian president Vladimir Putin is a Libra. He was nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. Bruce Springstein “The Boss”, has captivated masses for 30+ years with his charisma. Jim Henson and John Lennon were also Libras who mesmerized masses of followers.

Sleeping Beauty symbolizes a search for self through other. Prince Charming (Aries) rescues SB from her hundred year sleep. He bestows a magic kiss that enables her to awaken. They ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after. Many Libras have unrealistic expectations of relationships that end up a disappointing reality. Most Libras prefer to be married. A marriage license may be a legally binding contract, but it doesn’t guarantee love.

Winnie the Pooh (Libra) tries to find balance in his life by “think, think, thinking”. Somehow, he always manages to get a pot full of honey for himself. Christopher Robin (Aquarius) knows what’s best for everyone. Winnie lives in the hundred-acre wood with his friends, Piglet (Gemini), Rabbit (Virgo), Roo (Sagittarius), Tigger (Leo), and Eeyore (Capricorn).

Everyone has Libra, Venus, and a 7th house in their astrology. Deep down, we know what’s honest, true, and fair. Most of us have ethical and moral values and boundaries. We also know right from wrong and fear the consequences of our betrayals. It’s easy to analyze, rationalize, and compartmentalize our bad habits and behaviors. “Laws keep honest people honest”, “Locks keep honest people out”, and “Contracts are only as good as the people who sign them” are aphorisms that describe Libran logic.

Historically, when the outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto transited the sign of Libra, forces of good and evil clashed as we tried to find a balance between optimism, pessimism, tolerance, prejudice, progress, and regress. There was not much social or political stability during these periods.

While the planet Neptune (Pisces) transited the sign of Libra from 1942 to 1957, Nuclear weapons began proliferating. The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. President Truman instructed the Atomic Energy Commission to produce an even bigger `Hydrogen Bomb’. The United Nations began blossoming. International cartels became firmly established. The European Common Market was recognized. The civil rights movement flourished. Group psychology became popular. The World Council of Churches was established. Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini, founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was the first American citizen canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.

The art world went through dramatic changes. Allen Ginsberg became a popular poet writing, “I have seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness”. When Neptune left Libra in 1957, the bestselling novel was Peyton Place focusing on sexual intrigue in a small town. People born between 1942 and 1957 tend to be overly idealistic in relationships. They must learn to harmonize, compromise, and sacrifice.

While the planet Uranus (Aquarius) transited the sign of Libra from 1968 to 1975, the spirit of our nation shifted from optimism to pessimism. Faith in progress turned into disillusionment with national institutions and world progress. This period was marked by useless popular inventions like the “pet rock”, giant platform shoes, and shag haircuts. Punk Rock, along with primal therapy and streaking became popular. The Supreme Court legalized abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy (Roe vs. Wade). Governor Wallace, a racial bigot from Alabama, announced that he would be running for President on the newly formed American Independent Party ticket. He threatened to repeal the “so called civil rights laws”. Meanwhile, the most popular show on TV was a comic satire about a racist named Archie Bunker. Diplomat Henry Kissinger approved the financing of clandestine CIA activities in Chile aimed at preventing the election and inauguration of Salvador Allende as Marxist President. Patty Hearst was kidnapped and brainwashed by the Symbionese Liberation Army. A military junta deposed Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie.

While the planet Pluto (Scorpio) transited the sign of Libra from 1971 to 1983, growers and pickers finally reached a settlement that ended a nearly ten year grape boycott (led by Cesar Chavez). Farm workers finally had bargaining power. This time marked the official beginning of the environmental movement. The Supreme Court upheld busing as a way of integrating schools. An assassination attempt left presidential candidate George Wallace paralyzed from the waist down. Prime Minister Idi Amin slaughtered over 300,000 Ugandans and alienated his country from the rest of the world. Violence in Ireland forced Britain to seize control of Northern Ireland and suspend the Protestant controlled parliament. An arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization terrorized the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich. In 1975 South Vietnam crumbled, bringing an end to the Vietnam War. Because of the Karen Ann Quinlan case, `right to die’ rulings were enacted all across the USA. The serial killer “Son of Sam” was finally put away after terrorizing the male and female population of NYC. Religious fanatic Jim Jones got his followers to commit suicide. John Lennon was murdered.

Intuitive types (Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius) are highly spirited, enthusiastic individuals who dislike details, need to grasp the whole picture, require a lot of freedom to express themselves naturally, and pride themselves on their honesty. As objective independent thinkers, they must set inspiring goals to channel their energy and passion into. They become easily bored with the mundane and routine. They must cultivate far vision and enduring patience. Often accused of ‘being opinionated’, their point of view is crucial. Communicating clearly and effectively is a must. The best way for these extroverts to flourish is to behave responsibly, honestly, patiently, and naturally in relationships.

Leos are fixed intuitive types who love being the center of attention. They’re creative, dramatic, generous, enthusiastic, and fiercely loyal. They’ll try to adopt you into their ‘pride’ when they’re feeling admired and appreciated. Their fans look forward to their humor and stories. Don’t ever take a Leo for granted. Unlike Aries they take rejection personally, even if they haven’t been rejected. As creatures of habit, they can cling to obsolete behavioral patterns, depressing situations, and fruitless relationships. Leos must learn to let go of false pride, pay attention to the handwriting on the wall, and cut their losses by letting go of whatever’s not working. Leos can also spread themselves too thin and become the notorious multi-talented jacks of all trades, masters of none.

Donald Trump is a Gemini with Leo rising. His Leo hands embody the most negative attributes of Leo’s will power and behavior that include being self-centered, self-indulgent, superficial, ostentatious, egotistical, ruthless, greedy, bossy, seductive, and a lousy role model.

How many gilded towers, glitzy gambling casinos, golden pedestals, and graven images do we require? Beauty queens, shark tanks, and celebrity idols are our heroes. What has happened to Donald’s (and our) humanity and spirituality?

You don’t need to have a Leo sun to be a Leo type. Leonine hands are like Arian hands in shape, consistency, and coloration. Leo’s joints are stiffer, especially the thumb. The elasticity of Leo’s hands is tenser and the consistency is denser than their Sagittarian brethren. Leo life and head lines are closely intertwined where the thumb joins the hand. Pure Leos have strong ring fingers. Shapes of the tips, proportions of phalanges, knots, nails, and other markings reveal more about the person. Whorl fingerprints (concentric circles, spirals, fire / intuitive) add originality, independence, and unconventionality.

Ring fingers symbolize artistic and aesthetic abilities, drama, versatility, salesmanship, showiness, and gambling proclivities. No matter your archetype, long ring fingers on dominant hands add versatility, adaptability, creativity, and expressivity. Cultivated types savor beautiful things with a highly developed sense of taste and style. I’ve noticed that long ring fingered types are more likeable than short ring fingered folk. A ring finger is judged for length against the middle finger. When the tip is shorter than the middle of the first phalanx of the middle finger, it’s considered short. When longer, it’s long. Long index fingered Leos love being boss. Last time I checked, there were more Fortune 500 and NASDAQ (over 10%) LEO CEO’s than any other sign. I’ve seen similar ring fingers on hands of gamblers. They win, but don’t know when to stop betting. I’ve also read the hands of many architects, designers, photographers, craftsmen, and curators with long ring fingers.

Free will is the most important reason for learning to read hands. Willpower is the esoteric correspondence for Leo. Our thumb is the location of will in our hands. It’s the reason we dominate our simian ancestors. Our minds developed because our thumbs oppose our other four fingers. A thumb is a small body part that takes up a huge space in the cerebral cortex of our brains. We’ve designed all of our tools from a simple pencil to our most complex computers as a result of the placement of our thumbs.

Our hands manifest the messages of our minds. In turn, our character, thoughts, feelings, and experience are mapped in the shapes and proportions of our hands. Our stories are engraved in the topography of our hands. It’s paradoxical that so few of us are aware of the priceless treasure waiting to be discovered at the ends of our arms. The beauty of palmistry is that our changes reveal themselves in the mirrors of our hands over time as our thinking and circumstances change. Freewill is a choice and opportunity for change.

Our thumbs symbolize our three most valuable natural resources: will power, logic, and ability to love. These precious qualities must be balanced. Thumbs, like our other fingers, have two joints that form three segments known as phalanges. The top phalanx is will power. The second is reasoning ability. When will is longer than logic, we may act before we think. If logic is longer, we may figure everything out, but get stuck in thinking. Then we procrastinate when we should act. A bit more logic than will keeps us in check.

Knots symbolize a need for more order in the area the knot represents. The knottier the joint, the more order is needed. The top knot is mental order (or disorder). The second knot needs physical order. If the middle phalange on your pinky is shortest, it may not be easy to keep things in their place. Huge knots may be arthritic or they can alert you to possible OCD. ‘Everything must be as I need it to be.’ The third or bottom phalanx is the ball of thumb (contained by the lifeline). Balls of thumb provide information about our capacities for sympathy, nurturing, maintaining intimate connections, loving, and valuing children, animals, nature, art, and music. Without love, empathy, and sympathy, all the passion, logic, and will in the world will never be healthy.

Thumb size is important. A thumb must be judged in relationship to the whole hand. Does a thumb look large or small in comparison to a hand? Is a thumb high or low set? The ‘normal’ length of thumb (held closely to hand) is even with the middle of the third phalange of the index finger. If longer, it’s long. If shorter, it’s short. A large thumbed person is a natural leader who wants useful practical results. Small thumbed folk are impressionable, sentimental, and easily led by their heartstrings. A tiny flexible thumbed person might stay home in bed, watch soap operas, and eat bonbons. Read my version of the “Three little pigs and their thumbs”.

“The most difficult job in the world is not being president. It’s being a parent.”

Ex-President Bill Clinton is a Leo. Born in 1946, three months after his real dad died, Bill was raised by an abusive alcoholic stepfather. Many Leos spend much of their lives searching for approval from father figures because theirs was physically, mentally, or emotionally absent during their formative years. One of Leo’s quests in their life is a hero’s journey to overcome the fear of abandonment and become a devoted parent figure who loves unconditionally without expectation. Bill’s Sun, Mercury, Saturn, and Pluto are in Leo. He has Leo hands with a robust ring finger that enjoys marriage, but has very high expectations of his mate. As Commander and Chief, Bill was a polyamorous player of political games, musical instruments, and women.

People judge Bill for his character, but whether you like him or not, Bill is true to his character. Bill’s Sun and Jupiter blend Apollo and Zeus, two powerful, charismatic, and sexy gods in Greek myth. Zeus was famous for his seductions and philandering. Apollo was irresistible. It’s not easy to find healthy creative outlets for all that libido. Many of the most powerful men and women in the world are philanderers with secret sexual addictions. Excess testosterone comes with the territory.

Bill loved ruling the free world, getting away with shameful sex, and playing his saxophone at the same time. Zeus could possess whatever mortal he wanted. His challenge was getting away with it. Hera was famous for kicking his butt by punishing his conquests and their offspring. Due to our culture’s fundamentalist socio-religious values, Bill Clinton’s sexual behavior undermined his position and power. It’s hard to get away with much when you’re both mortal and a celebrity. You can bet Hillary (Scorpio) booted Bill’s behind when he was caught with his pants down around his ankles and his cock in his intern’s mouth. Hillary is less likeable than Bill, but she’ll be a better President if she gets the chance.

Apollo and Hercules are solar archetypes of ancient Greece. Samson was Judaic, Osiris was Egyptian, Parcival was English, and Narashima was Indian. The Lion King and Goldilocks are fairytales that Walt Disney popularized. One Leo who feared his father and made a myth out of himself is the ‘Terminator’ / ‘Conan the barbarian’, former governor of California. Arnold’s short index fingers (may appear short when folded inward) reveal deep issues and challenges about his self-esteem and spirituality. Curved pinkies please while avoiding real confrontation by pretending things are better than they are. They act nice when they don’t feel nice. Arnold’s large flexible thumbs are adaptable and versatile. He can become distracted and unfocused. People accuse Arnold of being a bad actor. Arnold chooses great plots. He’s much more clever and adaptable than people realize. Arnold’s Arthurian myth is the search for the Holy Grail. He must ask the right questions to find a balance between his head and heart.

In April of 2001, I read Martha Stewart’s hands on her TV show, ‘Martha Stewart Living’. A critical father encouraged Martha to be obsessively ambitious and compulsively hard working. Born August 3 1941, Leo rules Martha’s Sun, Pluto, and Midheaven. Her multi- talented hardworking Aquarian hands are well designed for gardening and crafts. I didn’t see “fame” in Martha’s hands. I saw an extremely strong index finger on her dominant hand. Martha earns and deserves whatever she achieves.

Martha’s large stiff thumbs symbolize persistent will power, dogged determination, and fiery passion. As a host, Martha was gracious. As a boss, she’s demanding. I observed dozens of hip young people who make sure Martha always looks good. Her intention and mission is to give her fans valuable information and resources. In hindsight, I regret not doing a better job explaining palmistry. I was nervous. When I got home, I examined Martha’s hand prints along with her astrological chart. I wish I could share them with you, but don’t have permission. I realized 2002 was going to be a challenging year in which Martha’s integrity and reputation might be challenged. I offered to discretely share my insights with her. She didn’t reply.

When the ImClone stock scandal broke, people who knew I’d been on her show began calling to ask if I’d seen it coming. They made cruel jokes and suggested I remove her from my press materials. I was disgusted by how many people found joy as Martha crashed and burned. The media dressed Martha in wolf’s clothing and she became their sacrificial lamb. Meanwhile, real criminals, like George W Bush’s buddy, ‘Kenny Boy’ Lay (Enron), Dennis Kozlowski (Tyco), and Bernie Ebbers (WorldCom) were getting away with capitalistic genocide. I wrote to Martha to offer my insights. Again, there was no reply.

I see Martha as an honest person with straight fingers, firm elastic skin, strong healthy palms, and clearly defined lines. Martha became a high profile casualty of corporate greed and corruption. Innocence or guilt was not the issue. Martha’s Leo pride got in the way. She used poor judgment. She wasn’t thinking “I’m insider trading” when she sold her stock. Sure, she should have known better. Rich people are privy to exclusive information. They can choose to enrich themselves with or without it. Secret actions and absolute discretion are a win win scenario.

Martha should have chosen humility like Mufaasa. Instead, she behaved immaturely like young Simba. Where were Pumbaa and Timon when she needed a refresher course on the laws of the jungle? Goldilocks may have enhanced the porridge and decorated the beds more beautifully, but the bears were still pissed when they get home. Martha demonstrated the hubris that destroyed the gods and heroes in Greek and Roman myth. As a queen, she must always take the high road. She should have apologized to her loyal fans and offered the profit to a great cause. Trust will be re-earned as Martha serves her fan’s needs, battles her ego, and shows true humility and generosity of spirit.

An appropriate archetype for Martha is the Greek goddess Athena, who ruled Arts and Crafts. In peacetime Athena is pictured with a spear in one hand and a bowl or spindle in the other. She looked after weavers, potters, and craftsmen. Athena clashed with a mortal named Arachne, an incredible weaver. People compared Arachne to Athena and it went to Arachne’s head. She should have given Athena credit. Instead, she arrogantly challenged Athena to a weaving contest. She made matters worse by poking fun at Athena’s family with her art. Her creation was magnificent, but Athena transformed Arachne into the greatest weaver for all time, the arachnid (spider). It’s not a good idea for mortals to mess with Gods.

Martha is dominated by Athena, but she’s not Athena. She has enormous mental, spiritual, and physical energies and resources and is capable of making positive differences by weaving powerful webs of strength, beauty, hope, and faith. Martha can inspire the masses with her good deeds and catalyze positive changes in our world.

Leo is our sun, royalty, and celebrity. I’ve read many celebrities, CEOs, and mega-rich people that live like self-appointed royalty. People ask, “Did you see fame and great wealth in their hands?” NO is the answer. Fame and wealth are not fate, but choices. Hands reveal how a person’s potentials are fulfilled. You too can be wealthier if wealth is your top priority (even if it’s not a priority in your hands). Palmistry books tell us of fame lines that form a perfect ‘star’ under the ring finger. Sarah Bernhardt is the example most palmists use. I’ve seen two perfect stars of Apollo in forty years; the first was on Katie Couric’s right hand and the second on Susan Sarandon’s left hand. I’ve mostly read a diversity of hands with a variety of challenges and solutions to problems with self-esteem, wounded hearts, and confused minds. I can’t be more specific because I must be discrete. Powerful people have the same challenges as everyone else. Many successful people have been driven to succeed because of their fears and insecurities. I’ve learned that money can and does help iron out some of the wrinkles.

I’ve personally turned away opportunities for more celebrity. I was offered a live reality TV series. I’d read hands of people who were chosen by the producer. I refused. I didn’t want to be offensive, defensive, or end up being the ‘Jerry Springer’ of the metaphysical world. A person’s inner life is private and should be respected, even if they don’t respect it. Dog and pony shows may be popular, but I have zero desire to be part of one.

When the producer from ‘The View’ called to ask if I’d be on their show, I initially said ‘no’. I didn’t want to defend myself and palmistry. The producer promised that wouldn’t happen. She insisted I’d have a venue to offer viewers a real taste of palmistry. Unlike Martha’s show (which was taped and edited), ‘The View’ is live with a live audience.

Sure enough, as the cameras commenced, the banter and jokes began. Star Jones challenged me with learning what I was telling her by watching the show. You’ll enjoy my response. In fairness to the producer, they did give me five-minutes to say what I wanted. Please excuse the quality of snapshots. They were captured from the shows.

Alan and I met in the mid 70’s, before I moved to NYC. Alan’s rectangular palms and short fingers reveal an intuitive type. His thumbs and fingers are very stiff and his head and life lines are closely intertwined where his thumbs meet his hands. Alan is a Leo with Leo hands. His lower set curved index fingers, bent pinkies, and crooked middle fingers tell his tale of striving for and achieving personal transformation.

Alan was born poor. His real father died when he was four. He lived on a commercial street in a rich Jewish neighborhood. Alan’s mother was obese and in bad health. She loved Alan, but in desperation, remarried a horrible man who became Alan’s evil stepfather. I saw this creepy guy at funerals before I knew Alan. He was employed by the local home to be a part-time mourner at small gatherings. Alan was an unwanted stepchild in his own home, a tiny shabby apartment located above a smelly butcher shop. While other kids wore monogrammed shirts, smelled of fancy colognes, and drove sporty cars, Alan looked over his shoulder to make sure no one would see him climbing the dingy stairs to his very depressing world.

Alan decided early that he would not be poor when he grew up. His bible became Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. John Lennon was his hero. Alan stubbornly persisted and finally earned his law degree by selling ironing board covers and light bulbs door to door. Lawyers with crooked pinkies are notorious for bending the truth and the law. Alan was as clever as the best of them, but he chose to turn his ingenuity toward marketing himself. With truth on his side, Alan could bend everything else. He became a clever pioneer in legal advertising. Other lawyers who didn’t know Alan saw him as a greedy ‘ambulance chaser’, but Alan’s marketing mind put his clients’ needs and interests first. He once told me, “It doesn’t take winning too many good cases to make a great living.”

While walking in our office in the forest one day, Alan proclaimed, “I used to dream I’d be successful and own a lot of stuff and now I do. I’m glad I proved to myself that I can do it. I no longer need any of it to be happy.” I immediately challenged him to let go of everything. We both knew the truth ~ that it would require a miracle or a catastrophe.

When Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto passed through Leo in the twentieth century, enormous changes were taking place in personal, collective, and governmental rights and power. Uranus (Aquarius), planet of change, transited Leo from 1955 to 1962. The sun shined on strong will, rebellion, determination, vitality, forcefulness, and civil rights. Rosa Parks defied a segregation ordinance by not giving up her bus seat to a white man in Alabama. The Supreme Court upheld her civil rights a year later. The University of Mississippi was forced to enroll its first black student. President Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock Arkansas to enforce school desegregation. President Kennedy ordered the National Guard to keep schools open in Alabama. Cultural shame cultivated seeds of positive change. Equality and civil rights is still an embarrassment.

New inventions promoted convenience and provided more time for recreation and leisure. Kentucky fried chicken was introduced. Play-Doh became popular. Davy Crocket and coonskin caps became fashionable. Pampers became the first disposable diapers. Crest was the first fluoride toothpaste. The first electric toothbrush was produced. The Teflon Company introduced non-stick cookware. Smith Corona introduced the first portable electric typewriters. Mattel Inc. introduced Barbie. Felt tipped pens became popular. Soft drinks were packaged in aluminum cans for the first time. K-Mart and Wal-Mart opened. Bank of America and American Express issued the first credit cards. The first transatlantic telephone cable began working. The first transcontinental helicopter flight was made. That was only half a century ago.

Neptune (Pisces) takes fourteen years to change sign. When it does, the collective goes through confusing and ambiguous changes. Neptune transited the sign of Leo from 1916 to 1929. Phenomenal world confusion was happening. War brought tremendous prosperity to Wall Street while soldiers earning $16 a month were being killed in the trenches. England blacklisted and prevented over 80 US firms from dealing with neutral countries because they were suspected of trading with Germany. Prescott Bush was one of them. Influenza caused over two hundred deaths a day. Approximately one quarter of the US was sick. Half a million people were dead before the end of 1919.

Daylight savings time began. Arkansas farmers dedicated a monument to the Boll Weevil, whose devastation of the cotton crop caused them to diversify and become more profitable. By 1927, the farm population had dropped dramatically. Countless farmers hopelessly and desperately sold their farms.

Neptune rules alcohol. The underworld, mafia, and gangs thrived. National prohibition began in 1920. Liquor smuggling and bootlegging became big business. Marijuana is the new alcohol.

Congress set a quota limiting the number of immigrants allowed into the country.

A senate subcommittee was formed to investigate the Teapot Dome oil leases.

Walt Disney released the first Mickey Mouse cartoon in 1928. George Eastman created the first color motion pictures. Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was performed for the first time as a new form of symphonic jazz.

Doubt, fear, and panic caused the stock market to crash, leaving farmers, businessmen, and both haves and have nots in a state of terrible confusion and crisis.

History repeated itself in the opposition as Neptune transited Aquarius (1998 – 2012). War is still bringing prosperity to Wall Street. Agribusiness and chemical companies like Monsanto are still crushing small farmers and deluding consumers. Immigrants are still being persecuted. Oil and energy companies are still controlling and manipulating us.

The planet Pluto (Scorpio) takes approximately twenty years to change sign. When it does, it disintegrates, destroys, and transforms collective consciousness. Pluto is the dark side of the force. As Pluto transited the sign of Leo from 1938 to 1957, national and personal pride and power transformed. Despite the New Deal, ten million people were unemployed in 1939. President Roosevelt increased appropriations for building the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Congress adopted the Naval Expansion Act. Roosevelt transformed the Federal Reserve by creating the ‘withholding tax’, which was the beginning of social security. He became the first president to appear on television.

The House investigated un-American activities. It was the beginning of huge multi-national business conglomerates. Western Europe tried to appease Hitler with the Munich Pact, which turned Czechoslovakia over to Nazi Germany. Polls showed Americans approved. The Nazis invaded Poland, which caused Great Britain and France to declare war. Winston Churchill asked President Roosevelt for help. In 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Japanese Americans paid a high price as they were forced from their homes into concentration camps where they became innocent victims of hate and prejudice. Fundamentalist devotion to ideologies and tyrants began to crumble. In 1943, the fascist dictator Mussolini fell from power. By 1945, most of the world knew that six million Jews had been slaughtered in Nazi concentration camps.

The atomic bomb was the ultimate plutonian weapon. After we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered. In 1949, we supported a war in Korea that ended up killing three million Koreans in less than a year. In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy began his sensational tirade against communist subversives and traitors in the US. Julia and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to the electric chair for stealing bomb secrets.

In 1951, the United Nations complex was completed in New York City. AT&T became the first company with over a million stockholders. Christine Jorgensen became the first transsexual to go public in 1952. Norman Vincent Peale’s best seller, The Power of Positive Thinking was published. The first kidney was transplanted. The first mechanical heart was made to work. Chevrolet introduced the powerful sexy Corvette in 1953. The US launched the Nautilus, the first nuclear powered submarine in 1954. The Soviet Union opened the world’s first atomic power station. Reigning British Monarchs made their first visit to American soil.

We reached for outer space. Better known as the `ME NOW’ generation, people born between 1938 and 1957 have used technology to build personal power. Pluto in Leo still rules capitalism and democracy. Rest assured, plutocrats will have little problem finding money, rights, resources, and technology to own, harness, package, distribute, and sell our Sun’s energy to all of us when Uranus returns to Leo (2039-2046).

Cancer is a feeling type. Feeling types have the strongest potential of the four basic types for expressing their highest spiritual nature. They’re intuitive, empathic, sensitive, and very aware of the needs of others. They can be very hard to understand because they tend to hide their true selves. They take cover in their shells when you try to pry into their private lives. They’re cautious because they feel deeply vulnerable. Cancer types must learn to be frank and direct, rather than wield tact and diplomacy to avoid emotional confrontation. Avoiding confrontation doesn’t mean they won’t cultivate intimacy wherever and whenever they can. Cancer feelings can swing from loving and devoted to secretive and reclusive to obsessive and fearful. When Cancer types are feeling controlled or confined, they can become dark and moody. They need to feel protected and secure before they can fully trust. Once trust is earned, loyalties run deep. Healthy family ties and close friendships nourish their naturally nurturing natures. Having organization, structure, and detail helps them feel more stable and secure.

Healthy types have no problem expressing love, compassion, sympathy, and devotion. They communicate best with other feeling types and feel safe with practical types who are responsible, reliable, and dependable. Feeling types are thinking and intuitive type challenged. They’re nervous they’ll be left holding the psychic garbage bag and forced to deal with the emotional fallout when idealism, optimism, enthusiasm, and logic wane, and they do. Having acute consciousness of one’s own emotional needs is essential.

Pure types tend to be internally secretive and externally ambitious at the same time. They’ll work extremely hard as long as income matches output. That income provides food, family security, and fertile ground for their roots and resourceful imaginations.

Demeter is the Greek earth goddess of grain and the harvest. I chose her to represent Cancer and water because she’s a powerful mother. Cancer mothers (not all) are thought to be controlling and overprotective of their children. When Pluto abducted Persephone, Demeter exercised her mother power over all the gods, goddesses, and mankind by creating winter (death of flora) for the months that Persephone is with Pluto.

You don’t have to have a Cancer sun to have Cancer hands and behavior. Rectangular palms and long fingers (often held closely together) indicate dominant feeling types. Healthy Cancer hands are firm in consistency and moderate in flexibility with pink elastic skin. Joints are less stiff than Scorpion and less flexible than Piscean types. Healthy types have a firm sincere handshake. More lines add more sensitivity. Head and life lines may separate at their beginnings. Long head lines gently slope downward toward well-developed heels of the hands while long heart lines gracefully curve upward toward the index finger. I’ve observed a lot of round or conical fingertips with long nails and a majority of loop fingerprints, but not enough to generalize.

“You’ve got to play to lose”

Forty-one years ago, this moment was captured in a photo booth at Kennywood Amusement Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Lloyd and I met while employed part time at a metal, plastics, and woodworking machine shop where we fabricated preschool children’s learning thingamajigs. We made toys for ourselves on our own time. We were about to graduate from different colleges. I’d become an industrial designer. Lloyd would continue to be an artist. We were actually a couple of Peter Pans on our way to Neverland.

Once upon a time, we hitchhiked to a local auto drive-away place, surveyed some pins on a map, and impulsively decided to drive a brand new black Cadillac Fleetwood limousine from Pittsburgh to Miami Beach. We had three days to get there. With a lot of caffeine and humor, we made it in twenty-four hours. We visited Lloyd’s older sister when we arrived, pretending we were successful entrepreneurs. While we were out shooting skeet and racing go-carts at the local track, Lloyd’s sister thoughtfully washed our laundry for us. We came home to find our ragged underwear and socks hanging on her clothes line. The jig was up. Then we drove the Caddy to the beach in search of horny females, but didn’t enchant any.

Lloyd would say to me, “People who tell the truth don’t need to have good memories”. I’d reply, “We may be bastards, but at least we’re honest”. Fifty years of friendship have witnessed many challenging lessons in humility for us. We delayed our outer world from harmonizing with our inner world by always choosing to learn the hard way. There were no shortcuts. We had to finally let go of our need to be more and greater than we were.

Lloyd’s slender rectangular palms and long fingers harmonize with his Cancer sun, which is conjunct my Mercury. His Gemini ascendant harmonizes with my Gemini sun. Lloyd’s head and life lines are tightly intertwined at their beginnings and reveal his desire to feel appreciated. He was a sensitive child who needed love and support, but didn’t get any. Lloyd tried hard to fix his broken parents, but they were too sick to give him approval and appreciation. Instead, they judged, criticized, and abused him. Lloyd can survive without anyone’s approval, but he thrives on appreciation. He’ll give his friends the shirt off his back, but they had better not take him for granted. Lloyd has literally given me the shirt off his back in my moment of need. I was on my way to an important meeting and got a nasty stain on my shirt. Before I could blink, Lloyd took off his shirt and traded with me.

Lloyd’s a quick thinker and extremely clever with words. Soon after we met, he was on the TV word show “Jeopardy”. When the host asked, “What do you do Mister Wilson?” Lloyd replied, “I’m a sculptor”. “What kind of sculpture do you make?” Not having a quick easy explanation for his broad eclectic mind and artwork, Lloyd sized up the marketing opportunity and responded in his deep resonant voice, “Expensive Sculpture”.

Lloyd didn’t get much nurturing as a child. He developed his quick wit and sense of humor while trying to avoid extreme physical abuse. When his mother was happy, Lloyd was safe. When she was unhappy, she’d incite Lloyd’s rage filled father to hurt him. Lloyd’s mother committed suicide, his father was committed to a mental institution, and his beautiful sister, who I’d met in Florida with her two young children, great husband, and apparently idyllic life, suddenly and unexpectedly blew her head off with a shotgun.

Lloyd’s very flexible thumbs symbolize his ability to adapt to the most horrible of circumstances. They also embody his generosity of heart and spirit. It’s very hard for Lloyd to say “NO”. He probably doesn’t realize it, but the gold ring on the bottom middle finger of Lloyd’s unconscious hand symbolizes his need to have clear boundaries, be frugal, and not give everything away.

Cancers are collectors. Some stockpile food in case of shortage or emergency. Lloyd collects art books, literature (he’s the most well-read person I know), religious art, art supplies, tools, and clothing. When wealthy people die, their families donate their clothing to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. Lloyd has a keen eye for the finest designer clothing as he picks through the merchandise. He’s a master bargain hunter. I call him my personal dresser. We wear the same sizes. Lloyd chooses suits, coats, and jackets with me in mind. He has gifted me with suits worth thousands of dollars that he paid ten or fifteen dollars for. Many have never been worn.

Lloyd Wilson is Pittsburgh’s best kept secret because he loves his anonymity. His artwork reveals a magical spirit, but few will ever get to know it. Lloyd personifies Cancer’s best qualities. He’s supportive, sympathetic, receptive, reflective, intuitive, imaginative, and extremely devoted to friends and family. It’s no surprise he’s my best friend.

USA PRESIDENTIAL HISTORY

Mission Accomplished?

There have been four US Presidents born under the sign of Cancer. The most recent and worst (in my opinion) President in history was George W Bush. His intuitive hands and personality match his Leo ascendant. George manifested the worst qualities of Cancer and Leo in his presidential intentions and actions. Here’s my rant I featured him in.

There were three previous Cancer Presidents. It’s interesting to look at the similarities.

Like George W. Bush vs. Al Gore, the 6th President, John Quincy Adams finished second in the popular vote behind General Andrew Jackson. No one had a sizable majority. The choice was put before the House of Representatives. The House Speaker, Henry Clay, swung the election to Adams. When Adams appointed Clay as Secretary of State, the Jackson followers cried, “Corrupt bargain”.

Unlike Bush, Adams was not re-installed. Here’s a quote on Adams by W.H. Littleton. “Of all the men whom it was ever my lot to accost and to waste civilities upon, he was the most doggedly and systematically repulsive. With a vinegar aspect, cotton in his leathern ears, and hatred in his heart, he sat… like a bulldog among spaniels”.

The 30th President, Calvin Coolidge, shared his (July 4) birthday with the US Declaration of Independence. His most famous characteristic, “holding his tongue”, earned him the title, “Silent Cal”. Two infamous sayings of his were, “If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called on to repeat it” and “The business of America is business”. William Allen White described him, “He was an economic fatalist with a God given inertia. He knew nothing and refused to learn”. “He was weaned on a pickle” declared Alice Roosevelt Longworth

The 38th President, Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr., didn’t learn that he had been adopted until he was seventeen years old. His wife Betty performed the domestic chores because Gerry wouldn’t lift a finger around the house. As Speaker of the other house, Ford passionately pleaded for escalation of the war in Vietnam. He urged members to “unleash devastating air and sea power”.

Ford launched an unsuccessful crusade to impeach liberal Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas as a favor to his buddy Richard Nixon. Ford ultimately granted Nixon a “full complete and absolute pardon” for all his crimes relating to the Watergate scandal. Ford also blamed the democrats for the disastrous rate of inflation and warned that electing more democrats would “jeopardize world peace”. He admitted that he almost never read books, but did find time to watch football on TV. Here are a few quotes from some of his celebrated critics.

“I cannot dislike him personally — he’s cordial and gracious. But he’s consistently wrong and consistency is a virtue of small minds. He’s never proposed a constructive solution to anything”. Congressman Robert Drinan

Lyndon Johnson accused Ford of “playing too much football with his helmet off”. “Jerry’s the only man I ever knew who can’t walk and chew gum at the same time”.

“Ford isn’t a bad man, but he’s dumb—dumb. He shouldn’t be dumb either. He went to school just like everybody else”. Reverend Duncan Littlefair

“The important thing is that men should have a purpose in life… it should be something useful, something good”

In contrast to George W Bush, the Dalai Lama is “the reborn soul of Buddha” and Nobel Prize winning pacifist. In Greek mythology, Orpheus was a singer, priest, healer, poet, and musician who could charm anyone. Orpheus enchanted Pluto into letting him enter the collective unconscious to retrieve his beloved Eurydice. In a moment of weakness, Orpheus looked back at death after being warned not to by Pluto. Orpheus lost Eurydice. He symbolizes the wounded healer who can heal others but not himself. The Dalai Lama was forced to flee Tibet in 1959. He lived as a “simple monk” in a remote corner of Northern India. His lifetime goals are to promote peace and love in the world and return to Tibet. You can bet whatever we owe China that it won’t happen anytime soon.

As the planet Pluto (god of sex, death, and transformation) transited the sign of Cancer from 1913 to 1938, partisan politics, nationalism, and isolationism transformed the world. World War I ended. World War II began. In 1913, President Wilson pressed a button in the White House that blew up the Gamboa Dike resulting in the destruction of the Isthmus of Panama. That action transformed travel by sea by creating a canal between oceans. Wilson legislated the Carter-Owen Bill that established a Federal Reserve System that transformed the strangle hold on the nation’s currency and credit system by banks.

Daylight Saving Time transformed the nation’s clocks. Transcontinental telephone service transformed international communications. World communications and atomic energy were developed. NBC became the first Nationwide Broadcasting Company. Wall Street prospered from the war while soldiers earning $16 per month died in the trenches. President Wilson established a lottery style draft promoting patriotism, while Congress passed the Espionage Act fining draft dodgers $10,000 and imposing a twenty-year jail sentence. No child was left behind.

Everyone was encouraged to “Do your bit”. Liberty Bonds and wheatless-meatless days were promoted. By the end of 1919, the Influenza pandemic had peaked causing over half a million deaths while almost one quarter of the nation’s population were sick. Prohibition banned liquor for all U.S. citizens. A huge black market and bootlegging industry began to thrive. Black leader Marcus Garvey organized The Empire of Africa that attracted over 500,000 followers. He led the largest mass exodus of Blacks in U.S. history. There was little sense of brotherhood.

In 1929, doubt, fear, and panic upset the stock market which faced its darkest hour and most difficult crisis in history. Traditional foundations of home and family transformed. People born during this period spent much of their lives taking care of family. Parents with overdeveloped guilt and obligation trips motivated children of this generation to become dropouts and runaways.

As the planet Uranus transited the sign of Cancer from 1949 to1955, Mothers stopped staying at home and went to work. Women began wearing the “bikini”, a fashionable French bathing suit. ‘I Love Lucy’, a comical show about a housewife and Cuban bandleader husband became the most popular show on TV. Ranch houses and basement playrooms became popular. The subconscious mind was explored in psychology. People born between 1949 and 1955 with Uranus in Cancer may be oversensitive and easily hurt by irrational fears, or they may be rational, aware, and strong by choice.

Gemini is the consummate communicator of the zodiac. She’s the most social of all types. He’s frequently accused of being an impractical dreamer because he loves ideas so much. She can detach herself from mundane reality and be objective about anything. He overvalues his intellect and undervalues his own and everyone else’s emotion. She feels threatened when her opinions are ignored. He can accept your point of view, even when he disagrees with you. She’s gets mad when her ideas are challenged without good reason. He’s easily distracted when he chooses not to be responsible for his decisions. She resists focus, discipline, and structure. Gemini loves to be mentally free.

Gemini rules hands. It also governs our respiratory and nervous systems. Gemini types are the most adaptable of all thinking (air) types. They have more flexibility in their joints, thumbs, and fingers than Aquarian or Libran types. Their life, head, and heart lines tend to split at their ends. In general, I’ve found a lot of line splits in duel signs. Dominant Libra splits at the end of the head line. Cancer and Pisces heart lines split.

Healthy Geminis have straight and strong pinkie fingers. They persuade you with logic and good sense. Long ring fingers make them even more attractive and irresistible. Gemini hands are firm with pink elastic skin. If you see yellow, there’s probably some nastiness going on somewhere. The trickster is good at hiding his dark side.

You don’t have to be a Gemini to have Gemini hands. It’s very powerful when a person’s sun sign matches their hand type. I’ve read a lot of famous people with sun signs and hands that match. It’s impossible to foretell from a natal astrology chart what symbolism will dominate a character. A sun, moon, stellium of planets, dominant house, or powerful aspects between certain planets or points in a horoscope may or may not determine what the native chooses to embrace. Hands can oppose a horoscope. As we embrace our strengths or choose darkness, our thinking and circumstances will be revealed in the morphology and topography of our hands over time.

I have Scorpio rising. Pluto closely conjuncts Saturn on my Leo midheaven. My eighth house is packed with Gemini planets. Chiron is conjunct my Scorpio ascendant. Based on my horoscope, my behavior should be Scorpio. I’m very Gemini. That’s my hand above. Scorpio is very powerful on my inside. It’s no wonder I’m obsessed with getting people to look at their hands. So much valuable information can be seen at the ends of our arms. All we have to do is learn to see the help in our helping hands.

Gemini is the most youthful and clever of all types. John F. Kennedy, youngest and first Catholic president was Peter Pan. Jackie was Wendy. Marilyn Monroe was Tinkerbell. John was a rogue and womanizer reputed for being raunchy and funny. The charming “Prince of Camelot” suffered depressing physical fatigue from Addison’s disease. The public never saw the pain in his joints. Kennedy wrote Profiles of Courage, which won a 1957 Pulitzer Prize. According to John’s biographers, his greatest challenge was not to choose winning over high moral standards.

Other Peter Pans were Pat Boone, who sold 18 million records by age 24. Tony Curtis was the ‘Great Imposter’. Bob Dylan sang “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”. Judy Garland was Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Henry Kissinger was the multi-lingual secretary of state under Richard Nixon. Joan Rivers was a comedian. Gene Wilder was Willy Wonka. Michael Jackson lived in Neverland.

A pinkie is the shortest finger. If a tip is longer than the crease between the first and second phalange of the ring finger, it’s considered long. If shorter, it’s short. Hermes (Mercury) was the shortest god. A dominant pinkie fingered person is short in stature (Ed Harris) with a slender body and face. She has expressive hands, dark hair, and penetrating eyes with crow’s feet in the corners. He’s very youthful. Men often have thin beards (Johnny Depp).

Hermes loves children. He’s childlike and androgynous. Hermes and Aphrodite had a fling that created Hermaphrodite. Many dominant Hermes (may not know or admit it) are bi-sexual. David Bowie is a Capricorn with powerful Hermes. Prominent pinkie people prefer small musical instruments that require a lot of dexterity. Music makes sense because hearing is their physical sense. In real life, Peter marries Wendy or a parent. Someone’s got to be practical. Caitlyn (Bruce) Jenner is Peter and Wendy.

A cultivated Gemini is a social and intuitive prodigy and a great judge of character. Pinkie fingers reveal the ability to communicate and be truthful. Early family dynamic is seen in how a pinkie is set on the hand. If it’s very short or low set, trust may be a major issue. Some women with low set pinkies have told me that they have a hard time having real orgasms. They fake them and keep their secret. Their greater challenge is learning to trust themselves and others enough to have real intimacy. Lengths and proportions of fingers, knots, nails, and shapes of tips reveal language, family, and sexual potentials.

Would you buy a used car from this guy? Gemini liabilities are trickiness, fickleness, nervousness, restlessness, and superficiality. Many preachers on soapboxes, pickpockets, and con artists have inwardly curving pinkies. There are also many wonderful incredible people with curved pinkies.

I work at special events with great magicians. These tricksters have a Mercurial nature. They astound audiences by deceiving the eye and mind of the beholder. I’ve watched amazing tricks over and over again and am constantly blown away. One friend, a close- up magician, sometimes works the lines of guests at special events that are waiting for my five minute hand readings. I overhear people asking him, “Is this real magic?” My friend says, “No, these are tricks. If you want real magic, go see Mark.” The real magic of reading hands is not the science and art of palmistry, but knowing oneself and others.

Gold and diamond pinkie rings are frequently found on acquisitive people who sublimate their sexual energies to accomplish something of value. I once examined the hands of fifty men born to wealthy families in the eighties. It seemed paradoxical to me that they all had a tiny bottom phalange on their pinkie. Money for the sake of money will never be a motivation for their major life choices. Family, friends, and good causes will fuel their values and good intentions.

I plan to feature family and friends in future posts. Meet my mother.

“Eighty years of age does not seem old to me. Old is when one is again dependent as we were in infancy – needing help as a constant to feed and care for oneself. Who knows, I may die from an illness before I ever get old, then on to my next adventure.” Mom was eighty-three when Hermes gracefully and graciously escorted her to death.

Mom was a consummate Gemini. Born a day before the summer solstice, she pondered her intentions, roles, and script until her last breath. She cared deeply for family and friends. For the last several years of her life, she quietly battled her mortality via metastasized breast cancer and a mass of malignant tumors in her liver that sucked her energy and tested her fundamental truths. Never complaining, mom’s endless encouragement, noble idealism, eternal optimism, and refreshingly ruthless honesty always inspired me to remain true to myself.

Mom considered herself lucky. She chose to lead a worthwhile and productive life. Her square palms and widely spread long fingers belonged to the youngest child of hard working Russian Jewish immigrants who cherished each other and their five children. Mom’s long strong index fingers symbolize her ambition to achieve. She was the first in her family to attend and graduate from college. Her family struggled financially, but always felt rich. Mom’s father (my Zadie) was the most generous man I’ve ever known. He had abundant warmth and good spirits and loose change for everyone. I remember in early childhood, Zadie showing up at mealtimes with some poor person he’d met on the street. There was always more than enough delicious homemade food for all. I cherish my memories of my Bobie and Zadie.

Mom’s two oldest sisters died tragically when she was young. Her surviving older sister, Bea, was a renegade. Mom was the brilliant talented young princess who could do no wrong. Bea (Sagittarius) was brilliant and talented too, but Bea did what Bea wanted to do. At eighty in this picture, she’s still sassy with her healthy earthy intuitive hands.

When Bobie was very old, her Alzheimer’s forced us to place her in a home where she could receive constant care. It was sad for everyone. Mom and Bea visited her often. Mom’s greatest fear was losing her mind. Bobie had no idea who mom was. That scared the crap out of her. One day, Bea visited Bobie. Bobie asked, “Who are you?” Bea replied, “I’m your daughter.” “I have a daughter?” Bobie inquired. “You have two daughters” said Bea. “Which one are you?” asked Bobie. “The bad one!” exclaimed Bea. Bobie remembered, “Oh Bea!” Bea eventually ended up like Bobie.

Mom was blessed in friendship. She attributed her ability to make friends easily to having to move frequently in childhood. With so many changes involving multiple schools, mom had to adapt and develop social skills. She fulfilled her friend potentials. When you examine the balls of mom’s thumbs, you see long lines parallel to her lifeline. Mom maintained intimate friendships for her whole life. She and her friends faithfully loved each other through their joys, tragedies, children, grandchildren, heart attacks, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Diabetes, Cancer, and many other dis-eases of old age.

The best thing our mother did for herself and her children was to marry our father. Dad spotted mom at a bus stop. It was love at first sight. She was a twenty-one year old virgin princess. He was a twenty-five year old former bad boy, turning good, just back from the horrors of World War II.

She played Eurydice to his Orpheus. Dad (Pisces) literally sang his ideas and tunes. Mom would craft his lyrics and refine his tunes as she accompanied his singing on the piano. We kids thought they were nuts, but our parents thought enough of themselves to peddle their wares down Tin Pan Alley, hoping for the next bestselling 45 rpm record. They promoted their favorite song “The Crack of the Carbine”, a tragic tale of a young murdered white tail doe, her homeless fawn, and a remorseful hunter. Dad sang it so passionately and mournfully that I had to fight off the tear in the corner of my eye. Our parents’ tragic mistake was hiring a professional demo singer, a hunter without a soul.

Dad was sentimental and sent mom a romantic anniversary card every month of their marriage until he suddenly and unexpectedly died at age fifty-four. We found albums full of them that mom had organized and saved. Dad also left short love notes around the house for mom to find and always had plenty of gifts and hugs for everyone else. He left mom a 3 X 5 notecard on the day he died ~ I LOVE YOU. Mom laminated it in plastic and placed it in a special spot on her dresser where she would always see it.

I was conceived on my parent’s wedding night and born nine months and one day later. Mom wanted natural childbirth; however, after fighting with me for thirty-six hours, the time had come for me to be cut out. I needed my horoscope. A natal chart is a mother’s transits at the exact moment and location of birth. My mother was inches from dying. She spent several weeks convalescing. I don’t remember bonding with her. When I first began to explore astrology, I hired a famous astrologer for my maiden reading. “This is a death chart”, she told me. She reflected many interesting things about my character, patterns, and habits. What I walked away with was this, “You will die and be reborn many times until you learn to fully love and let go of fear”. OK. I accept. What’s next?

When I was forty, I hired Dr. Laurie Nadel, a psychologist to take me back in time. She’d written a book, The Sixth Sense, on past life regression and was well known for her work in the field. Laurie encouraged me to visualize my life as a tunnel with a series of lights going backward through time. As I journeyed back, my job was to turn on the lights wherever they were out. I needed to jog my subconscious memory for that. After an hour or so, I arrived somewhere between age two and three. The tunnel was black. As I began turning those lights on, I found myself sitting on a tiny wooden potty, not needing to have a bowel movement, but still making grunting noises while my mother was concurrently teaching me to read. No one could ever accuse mom of being unambitious or inefficient. I’ll bet I was the first boy on my block to be out of diapers and reading at the same time. Mom set a timer on a variety of occasions (with threat of punishment) to help me achieve tasks that needed to be completed in a timely fashion. In her defense, with my highly flexible thumbs and fingers (my dominant thumb became stiff as I aged), I was talented, but also the most unstructured, undisciplined, and unfocused kid on the block. Peter Pan doesn’t like restrictions. I never did get to past lives in that session.

When I was four, my brother, Gary (Pisces with Libra hands) was born. At seven, Jennifer (Taurus with Aquarius hands) arrived. Mom said, “Parents make their biggest mistakes on their first”. That was true for me. Mom considered raising her children the greatest accomplishment in her life. At twenty, I confronted her to let her know that I wasn’t perfect and that she had made plenty of mistakes. Here is her response.

“My mistakes were not intentional. I’m sorry for anything I did which caused you any harm. I tried my best to be a good parent. You’ll understand when you’re a parent. You’re an adult now. You must grow up and get past whatever holds you back and be as healthy and happy as you can be.” She was right. What could I say? I forgave and thanked her. Gary and Jennifer were spared my most challenging lessons. Fortunately, we’ve all turned out well in ways that matter most to all of us.

Mom was a cultivated Gemini. The unearned princess became a self-appointed Queen. Mom’s friends and family accepted and supported her highness. Like Athena, mom ruled with strength, courage, dignity, and nobility. I was ten years old when mom read ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ by Victor Frankl. It powerfully reinforced what she already knew and confirmed her most important value in life, which was her understanding that while she couldn’t always control what happened to her, she had the power to choose what she thought, felt, and did about it. “Whatever happens to you”, she said to me, “Whether you’re going out in the rain with or without an umbrella or going to the electric chair screaming or with dignity, you have the ability to choose your behavior”.

My family was like a 1950’s TV sitcom. ‘Mother Knows Best’. Mom was an ‘at home’ mom during our formative years, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t work. She was a freelance gag writer for The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, and Family Circus (weekly comics in syndicated newspapers). She also wrote articles for women’s magazines. Mom was a wiz at crossword puzzles, jingles, or saying something in fifty words or less. I remember her winning about fifty contests one year. Some were national. The rewards were small.

Mom was a daunting scrabble player and the most formidable opponent for the Queen of Scrabble in our family, dad’s sister, Aunt Ruth. Ruth has a strong independent pinkie on her right hand and long practical head lines. She always gave me birthday presents like plain underwear and sox. I treasure her and Uncle Sam’s memory, and my cousins Shirley, Roz, and Max…

Check out the strong family resemblances and hands. The biggest differences are in hand flexibility, consistency, and elasticity of skin which you can’t see in the picture.

Even in the direst of circumstances, mom had a sense of humor. While lying in her hospital bed with tubes going in and out of her, she said to me, “What worries me most is how nice everyone is to me. Do they know something I don’t?” Jennifer warned, “You’re not allowed to die until you finish raising my (teenage) kids”. She joked about buying mom’s casket at Costco. Mom loved the idea. My brother said, “I’ll start worrying when you stop putting on your makeup”. He threatened to taxidermy her and promised to consign her to a corner in his living room if she didn’t stick around. In intensive care, the doctor told us that in all his years, he had never had a patient who was so sick and so determined not to look like it. Wheeling mom around the hospital, people thought I was her husband. I’d say “Thanks for the compliment, but I’m her father”. “Pleased to meet you”, they’d say. It’s never too late to embarrass your dying mother who’s still 39 at 83. Some things never change.

To get a real taste for mom’s Gemini personality, watch her exercise ball video. She was 78. It was made in response to my sister sending her the ball. Though the quality isn’t great, I guarantee the humor!

If the definition of a genius is an average student with a Jewish mother, ours was father (Pisces). It’s impossible for me to show mom’s humor without sharing dad’s antics.

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” Einstein

(Albert Einstein hand prints from the Marianne Raschig collection)

Pisces is an archetype for spiritual growth. It’s the astrological home of Neptune (Poseidon, King Triton), ruler of the seas. Water symbolizes emotion, instinct, personal feelings, and the collective unconscious. It’s the most calming and destructive force in nature. Neptune symbolizes any substance that alters consciousness, creates illusions, and fosters delusions. That includes prescription and recreational drugs, nicotine, alcohol, and any kind of smoke. Philip Morris (IPO March 15, 1923, Sun in Pisces) catalyzed a tsunami of cancer by maintaining the delusion that cigarette smoking isn’t harmful while creating and fostering the illusion that it’s cool to smoke. Neptune also rules the arts. Michelangelo, Renoir, Chopin, Ravel, and Nijinsky were Piscean. Major scientific advances are attributed to creative Pisceans like Alexander Graham Bell and Albert Einstein. Religion is Neptune’s mundane correspondence. Spirituality is its esoteric equivalent. Religion without spirituality is blind.

Pisces is the most sensitive, least acquisitive, and most introverted of all twelve types. They’re capable of incredible foresight, but are frequently misunderstood because they convey their visions to others through the lens of feeling. When their head and heart are balanced, Pisces can be the most powerful of all types. George Washington was a Pisces. Former CEOs of Citigroup, IBM, Merck, DuPont, and Bank One were Piscean. One of the youngest most powerful Pisces CEOs is Michael Dell of Dell Computer. Like the rebellious daughter of King Triton (Neptune / Poseidon), ruler of the Seas and the unconscious, Michael can swim anywhere and dream whatever he wants. Michael has the natural ability to tap into the collective unconscious. He intuitively gets a sense of what the public needs and hones in on that. He must keep an eye out for Ursula the Octopus, a conglomerate who lusts for control of his empire.

Pisceans are well suited to teaching, human resources, and the helping professions. They’re at home in the visual arts and music. Their strengths are compassion, humility, and faith, though they’re not known for being decisive. Both private and spiritual, Pisces can be challenging to get to know. Their trust needs to be earned over time. Unevolved Piscean types are impressionable and easily influenced. Many have a strong need to escape reality when circumstances get too difficult. Some become substance abusers (Johnny Cash, Jerry Lewis, Liza Minelli). Personally, I love Pisceans. My father was a Pisces. My brother is a Pisces. My daughter is a Pisces.

My first friend in New York City was Piscean. I knew her as Purnima, a name given to her in a Sufi commune where she had lived in England. Purnima has small hands with long slender palms and long delicate fingers with conical tips. Her palms are covered with a fine network of lines that seem as fragile as a spider’s web. Anytime you see a spider’s web in palms you must be careful what you say. A person who is very impressionable will remember the “bad things”, even if you didn’t say any.

Purnima was born as Fran and raised in New York City by a controlling alcoholic mother. Fran visited her emotionally absent estranged father as often as she could. She was convinced he loved her, although he was never able to verbalize it. Fran told me stories about how as a pre-teen she’d arrive at a police station to redeem her mother after a drunken brawl, only to be psychologically abused by her when they got home. Her short index fingers on both hands never got to grow longer because her mother constantly told her how worthless she was. Fran also had very flexible thumbs that embodied how easily she adapted to changing circumstances. There were so many distractions. It took Fran nearly fifty years to learn to say “NO”.

When I first met Purnima, she was a vegan chain smoker. That seemed incongruous to me, but I learned that inconsistency is consistent among Neptunian types. Purnima was a magnet for strays and fixer-uppers. She attracted the mangiest dogs, cats, mice, and the most damaged men around. She must have kissed a thousand frogs and strived to heal a hundred beasts, but none turned into princes. In hindsight, I had been one of her worthy causes. Purnima knew what I was feeling before I did. I’m glad she adopted me.

Forced to go to Church every Sunday, Fran witnessed hypocrisy in action. She had very little respect for formalized religion. Nonetheless, no matter how ugly or despicable the person or circumstance, Purnima had an uncanny ability to see a goodness and beauty in everyone and everything. Purnima was a wonderful poet and musician. Her poetry would have made great lyrics for songs. I encouraged her to perform and publish her work, but worldly ideas didn’t appeal to her. She felt that nothing was hers. Instead, she was a conduit for spirit. Purnima had no problem putting anything and everything into a spiritual context. I was amazed because she was an inch from poverty most of the time and yet she’d give away her last dime to someone needier than her. For a few days each week, Fran did meaningless temporary work for meaningless companies for too little money in order to survive.

Every time I’d put myself on a pedestal, Purnima would knock me off. She helped others, but had a hard time helping herself. I was unable to help except to listen and acknowledge her. Much of her time was spent dwelling in her past. That’s a challenge for feeling types in general. Purnima lives in San Francisco. She still checks in on me to make sure I’m staying on track and encourages me to keep evolving.

Hand of a Terrorist?

Absolutely! Would any palmist anywhere have had the foresight to predict that from a photo of his hand? Not a chance. Osama’s long narrow palms and closely held fingers and thumb illustrate a healthy feeling type. Interpol says his birthday is March 10 1957. His Sun, Venus, and Mercury were in Pisces and his Moon was in Cancer.

What can we see from this picture? This may piss a lot of people off, but based on his hand morphology, Osama bin Laden appears to be a healthy type. As a man of great religious faith, he believed deeply in his ideologies and convictions. Don’t forget that bin Laden was a rich Arab who gave up a life of wealth and luxury in the holy land to fight for his fellow Muslims in Afghanistan. The Taliban regarded him as a Saint.

Osama’s closely held fingers and thumb reveal a good team player who may also be cautious and shy. His strong index finger shows natural leadership ability and talent for directing and managing people. His long strong straight middle finger made for excellent organizing and planning. A long ring finger symbolizes a sense of style and a natural flair for the dramatic. Though his pinkie finger appears a bit low set (reticent to put himself in front), it’s long and straight, which is a sign of a powerful communicator.

Osama wasn’t born a terrorist and international pariah. That was nurture. We supported his transformation to monster when we conveniently forgot how he helped us evict the Soviets from Afghanistan. He was getting lots of “at a boys” and pats on the back from us back then. Osama became more militant as we selfishly abandoned his people when we no longer needed him. It’s no wonder Osama evaded being caught for so long. He received his ultra-security training from our CIA.

Osama was well aware of the power of symbolism. He may have had no remorse, but I’m positive he got no pleasure from killing over 3000 innocent people. His goal was to destroy powerful symbols of western testosterone; ego, greed, and global dominance. Tragically, the people who died in the 9 /11/ 2001 bombings were collateral damage.

The only outer planet to pass through Pisces in the twentieth century was Uranus, from 1919 to 1928. When Uranus completed its eighty-four year cycle through the zodiac in 2003, it began its journey through the sign of Pisces, crossing into Aries at the end of 2011. Let’s observe the cultural similarities between the two times Uranus has passed through Pisces in recent history.

When World War I ended in 1919, discrimination, immigration, and consumerism grew as Uranus left the sign of Aquarius. When Uranus moved into Pisces, a new kind of rebellion began. Over four million steel workers and miners walked off the job to protest too many work hours with “inhumane pay”.

All three Presidents in office during Uranus’s first transit through Pisces (Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover) promoted ‘government business partnerships’ as the focus of their presidencies. They put material wealth and unobstructed corporate power in the forefront of the nation’s political, social, and cultural fabric. Our government was cozily in bed with big business. In its second transit through Pisces, George W. Bush awarded our healthcare system to the pharmaceutical industry and insurance companies, our energy needs to oil companies, and the security of our airports and seaports in the hands of private enterprise. He tried to donate our Social Security to the stock market.

With Uranus in Pisces, traditional values of thrift and austerity gave way to neo-consumerism and buying on credit. Two out of three Americans had electricity, refrigerators, and washing machines. Spending on recreation tripled. Henry Ford announced cars in Green and Maroon as well as black. Mass produced foods such as Rice Krispies, Lender’s Bagels, Mounds Bars, Betty Crocker, and Peter Pan Peanut Butter influenced mass taste and created the illusion of an easier more convenient life. Movie houses, chain stores, and radio advertising proliferated. By the end of Uranus’s transit through Pisces, movie attendance had outstripped church attendance. Consumer magazines like Modern Romance challenged moral codes. Many critics believed consumerism was driving Americans into a soulless existence of materiality and conformity. Sinclair Lewis, famous author of ‘Babbitt’, highlighted the delusion of Uranus in Pisces when he blamed mass production and consumption for “having created a bloodless, loveless, and standardized world”.

The 30th President, “Silent Cal” Coolidge (same birthday as USA) said, “The business of America is business”. He also opened his mouth to say, “Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend”. He was speaking about the “inferior races” of Asia. Meanwhile, there was a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan that targeted African Americans, blacks, immigrants, Catholics, and Jews. In 1925, the Klan marched on Washington DC and drew over 40,000 hooded members. New immigration laws reduced the stream of immigrants to a trickle when congress decided admissions of immigrants should be on a quota basis – reduced to 150,000 new immigrants a year.

Uranus in Pisces symbolizes the conflict between science and religion. The socially correct term for Intelligent Design was Creationism. Religion clashed with modern science during Uranus in Pisces transits in both centuries. Tennessee legislators voted it unlawful for any teacher in a state supported school “to teach any theory that denies the story of man’s creation as taught in the bible”. They could not teach that man descended from a lower order of animals. A high school biology teacher named John Scopes tried to teach the theory of evolution. As the defendant in the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial” legal battle, John Scopes ultimately lost. Culture wars clashed over school curriculum, obscenity, censorship, race, and sexuality in theater and literature.

In the world of design, the Bahaus School of Architecture was created in Germany. Its less is more philosophy influenced product and building design. When I graduated from Carnegie Mellon U. as an industrial designer, intelligent design was about making and saving money for manufacturers. No one cared much about waste, except when it was costly. Intelligent design is very important. Designers select materials to be used in a product. They choose whether sustainable resources are used, how much energy will be consumed during production, what pollutants will be generated, and how the product will ultimately be disposed of, recycled, or reused.

Common sense is not necessarily good sense. If man were intelligently designed, we wouldn’t be racing towards self-destruction. Instead, we’d be healthier, happier, and taking better care of our planet, ourselves, and each other. Seven Commandments say, “Thou shalt not”. The negative language affirms they’ll be broken. Perhaps God could have framed all her rules and regulations more constructively.

Here are a few similarities between the two most recent transits of Uranus in Pisces:

1919 – The worst baseball (Black Sox) scandal in history happened when a grand jury brought indictments against eight players from the Chicago White Sox. They were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series and eventually found not guilty.

2003 – The illicit use of steroids became the biggest scandal in modern baseball.

1919 – The eighteenth amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors, which encouraged home brewing and bootlegging.

2003 – George W. Bush prohibited Medicare from negotiating drug prices. A black market for drugs from India and Canada began to thrive.

1921 – First formal investigations of the Teapot Dome oil scandals were initiated.